I can’t really rate this one but it was certainly interesting... not my favorite though.

Fantastic translation of the Confessions. Learned so much more the second time reading and discussing in class. Writing a paper on the presupposition of immutability as a literary device in Book VI this week for my phd seminar.

It was slow, it was dense, and it was militantly Christian. So why is that The Confessions is such an unavoidably fascinating work? Augustine appears here as a fully realized person, with all the good and the bad that that implies; it's as if the book was a conversation with God and a fly-on-the-wall was taking dictation. Since God obviously would have known Augustine's transgressions before they even occurred, Augustine thus has nothing to hide in this personal narrative, or at least makes it appear that way. The prose of this translation must be incredibly different from its Latin source, but it's obvious that Augustine has a force of personality that appears through his work that few writer have matched in the centuries that have followed this original Western autobiography. The power and beauty of his writing was no doubt aided by his devotion not only to The Bible, but to Cicero, Plato, and especially Virgil. It's also an incomparably fascinating window into the culture of the time: the Manicheans, Astrologers, Christians, and Pagans are all interesting studies through the eyes of this saint. His contributions to philosophy in this text cannot be ignored even today. Bertrand Russell (not exactly a churchgoer) admired his work on time, and it's still an enlightening experience to read these thoughts. And of course the story of spiritual awakening is an inspiring and beautiful one, a story that is not altogether dissimilar to that of the Buddha centuries before Augustine.

Although, especially at the start, it can be slow and cold reading, The Confessions more than justifies its position as one of the most important books ever written.

In the undertaking of reading The Confessions of St. Augustine, I discovered quickly that it was an auspicious text. St. Augustine’s reflection on his battle rejecting the flashy attractions of the world and embrace the Catholic faith provides a paradigm to many of us in the POVID microcosm who struggle with this dilemma on a quotidian basis.

Utilizing numerous scriptural references and detailed recollections, Saint Augustine recants the story of his struggle to accept the Catholic faith and reject his desires (bordering on hedonism). Generally the writing is without frivolous accentation---and to my delight---St. Augustine’s humor peeps through at times. Confessions encourages the government of life via the mind of a Saint.

"The decayed parts of you will receive a new flowering, and all your sicknesses will be healed."
(Matt. 4: 23; Ps. 102: 3).

His classic prayer of Grant me chastity and continence, but please not yet illustrates a struggle familiar to us who desires such that does not enhance the intellect. When it was presented as a question---what God was doing before He made heaven and earth – “He was preparing hell for people who ask questions too deep for them” caused laughter.

Conclusively, this book is the journey of a man searching for inner peace that is given by God. After tasting many earthly pleasures, he finally accepts the Lord into his life and ultimately achieves the goal of becoming an ordained bishop. Exceptional read---penned by a Saint. I recommend this for all fans of Thomas Aquinas.
---
In susceptione legendi Confessionum S. Augustini, cito detexi textum illum auspicatum fuisse. S. Augustinus in meditatione de proelio suo ad amoenitates mundi respuendas et catholicam fidem amplectendam paradigma praebet multis nobis in Microcosmo POVID, qui cum hac dilemma cottidiano fundamento luctantur.

Multis scriptorum testimoniis et recordationibus accuratis adhibitis, sanctus Augustinus narrat de suo personali certamine suscipiendae fidei catholicae eiusque desideria quae hedonismo finitima sunt repudiant. Plerumque scriptura sine frivola accentu est, et in oblectatione mea S. Augustini humor interdum percurrit.

" Debiles partes vestrum novum florem recipietis, et omnes languores vestros sanabuntur."
(Matth. 4, 23; Ps. 102, 3).

Eius classica oratio: Da mihi castitatem et continentiam, sed nondum placet certamen nobis familiare illustratum, qui intellectum non auget. Cum praesentatus est tamquam quaestio - quid Deus faceret antequam caelum et terram faceret - Infernum parabat hominibus qui profundius interrogationes pro eis interrogabant. Risum effecit.

Prorsus hic liber est iter hominis pacem interiorem quaerentis, ut soli Deo detur. Cum multas voluptates terrenas gustasset, Dominum tandem in suam vitam accipit ac finem tandem consequitur ut in Episcopum ordinatum fiat. Eximia lectione exara- tione S. . Hoc commendo omnibus fans Thomae Aquinatis.

Considering that the style of Augie's work is completely and utterly impenetrable, this is actually a pretty decent read. Just come to it expecting circularity, meditation, rapturous theology and self-flagellation, and you'll come away impressed.
Don't expect anything linear, and you'll be all the more impressed when he ends up, every now and then, out-Aristotling Aristotle with arguments of the (x-->y)&(y-->z)&(z-->p)&(p-->q); ~x is absurd; therefore q variety.
Don't expect any modern 'you are a unique and special snowflake and your desires are good it's just that your parents/society/upbringing/schoolfriends/economic earning power have stunted you' self-help guff. It'd be nice to read someone more contemporary who's willing to admit that people do things wrong, all the time, and should feel really shitty for doing wrong things.
Don't expect Aquinas. This is the hardest bit for me; if someone's going to talk about God I prefer that they be coldly logical about it. Augie goes more for the erotic allegory, self-abasement in the face of the overwhelming eternal kind of thing. No thanks.
Finally, be aware that you'll need to think long and hard about what he says and why he says it when he does. Books I-IX are the ones you'll read as autobiography, and books X-XIII will seem like a slog. But it's all autobiography. Sadly for Augie, he doesn't make it easy for us to value the stuff he wants to convince us to value, which is the philosophy and theology of the later books. The structure, as far as I can tell, is to show us first how he got to believing that it was possible for him to even begin thinking about God (that's I-IX). X-XIII shows us how he goes about thinking about God, moving from the external world, to the human self in X and a bit of XI, to the whole of creation in XI and XII, to God himself in XIII. I have no idea if this is what he had in mind, but it roughly works out. That's all very intellectually stimulating, but it's still way more fun to read about his peccadilloes and everyday life in the fourth century.

Ce viață, ce iubire, ce minte vie și neobosită în însetarea după Hristos. Pe Augustin îl simți tremurând lângă tine de dor și entuziasm atunci când îi citești textul. M-a rupt și mi-e rușine...

" Te iubesc, Doamne, cu o cunoștință sigură și deloc îndoielnică. Ai străpuns inima mea prin Cuvântul tău, iar din clipa aceea te-am iubit.
[...]

Dar ce iubesc, de fapt, atunci când te iubesc? Nu frumusețea corpurilor sau gingășia lor trecătoare, nu strălucirea luminii, a acestei lumini atât de prietenoase față de ochii mei, nu suavele melodii ale feluritelor cântări, nici mireasma dulce a florilor, a parfumurilor și a balsamurilor, nu mana cerească și mierea, nici membrele făcute pentru îmbrățișări trupești, nu toate acestea le iubesc eu atunci când îl iubesc pe Dumnezeul meu. Și totuși, iubesc un anume fel de lumină și un anume fel de glas, o anume mireasă , o anume hrană și o anume îmbrățișare atunci când îl iubesc pe Dumnezeul meu; sunt lumina, glasul, mireasma, hrana și îmbrățișarea omului lăuntric, care se află în mine acolo unde pentru sufletul meu strălucește o lumină care nu are hotar, unde răsună o melodie care nu piere în timp, unde se răspândesc miresme pe care nu le împrăștie suflarea vântului, unde se poate gusta dintr-o hrană pe care lăcomia nu o micșorează niciodată și unde se înlănțuie îmbrățișări pe care împlinirea dorinței nu le desface niciodată. Iată ce iubesc eu atunci când îl iubesc pe Dumnezeul meu."

I decided not to finish this one after making it through the first 4 sections. It's a bit out of my lane, so I'm not surprised I didn't love it. That's not to say there isn't a lot of value in it. The first two sections which focused on Augustine's childhood weren't for me, but I started to enjoy it more once he got to school in Carthage. But this is really for those who are studying theology or the history of theology. I'll give myself some props for giving it a go, but it benefits a certain audience. Two stars is too low, so we'll go with a low three.

This book, is meant (for me, at least), to be read repeatedly and slowly. I like to absorb and sometimes it’s a slower process than I anticipate. There is always more to ponder. Augustin is brilliant, yet sublime in his honesty. This book is a great place to visit many times. He takes my hand and pulls me along farther each time than the previous reading.

This was a newer translation that completely spoke to me.

What I especially enjoyed was that all the scripture that he referenced in his work was noted down. It took me a while to read this one because I read all of the Bible passages noted in the work.

I can see way this book has been such an inspiration for people over the years.

While reading this I was highlighting like crazy in my Bible app. Word of advice, if you read this edition and want to read all the passages, having a Bible app will make it easier. I was constantly switching between different translations because St. Augustine used the Latin Vulgate when he was writing this. And some of the books he referenced aren’t found in a common translation of the Bible.

Reading this book was a very joyful time.

I've waited too long to read Old Gus.

I had read an eclectic collection of his political writings during my college days, but only with my post-college burgeoning of interest in Christianity have I returned to him to approach the main body of his work. What a world this man's mind was! How compelling his personality, how sublime his intellect, how regal and incisive his prose! His life and spirit straddled so many worlds, mundane and divine, and this I think is what gives his writings so much of their timelessness. He wrote with a pilgrim's sense of listlessness and vulnerability, God-intoxicated, blurring the lines of social and intellectual categories.

The Confessions have been approached through so many different lenses; as autobiography, spiritual memoir, psychological self-evaluation, theological treatise, and, of course, as a great work of Latin literature, to be esteemed alongside that of Virgil, whom the young Augustine so admired.

Augustine transcends not only intellectual lines, but political and temporal ones as well. He wrote as the classical paganism of the Roman Empire was decaying and the brave new world of Christendom was suffering its birth pangs. Born in what is now eastern Algeria, he spent his formative years on the periphery of empire, and some have said that he applied a sort of tribal, Berber approach to sociality to the high theology and neo-platonic philosophy he studied at Milan. So Augustine never writes in the narrow veins of personal experience or academic tract. For him, the personal and political, the spiritual and intellectual, the social and psychological, are always bound up with one another. This brilliant sense of relationality may itself constitute Augustine's greatest contribution to western thought.

One thing is made clear when one reads the Confessions: Augustine knew his own mind incredibly well. He was brilliant at recognizing the psychological traps he set for himself; he knew the difference between reasoning and merely rationalizing. He suffered much because he knew of his weaknesses. He was captivating in his honesty. We see him stealing pears with his friends as a teenager, and bragging about sexual experiences he had never had in order to fit in. What teenaged boy hasn't had that experience? We see him scorning the piety of his mother, only to trudge back to it like the Prodigal Son after years of reflection. We see his struggles with his sexual appetite, his horror at the thought of giving up wives and concubines to seek a fulfillment beyond bodily gratification. We see him breaking down in a quiet Milan garden, lamenting over his wretchedness, how his unacted learning made him more wretched than the more simple believers whom he had spent his life viewing with condescension.

We see a man in the throes of the Christian project; a man learning to be a human being.

Read this one for class and I can’t stand this guy. He’s so lame and overly hard on himself. I promise you bruh no one cares that you stole some pears. The only cool people in the book are the Wreckers, “a title of ferocious devilry which the fashionable set chose for themselves”. He doesn’t really say anything else except that he enjoyed spending time but they were a secret snare of the devil. Honestly I’d much rather read their book.

This experience sufficiently illuminates the truth that free curiosity has greater power to stimulate learning than rigorous coercion.
- Augustine, Confessions



Sublime and Original

I can’t believe it has taken me so long to read Augustine’s Confessions. I might not agree with some of his conclusions (my Christian framework, Mormon*, would be considered a heresy by Augustine), but his influence on Christianity, philosophy, and the West can’t be ignored. I read this book in little bits on Sunday during Church (specifically Mormon church, more specifically Sacrament meeting).

You may notice the math doesn't work I've spent nearly half of the year reading Augustine on Sundays (52/2 = 26; 26x20 = 520; and Confessions is NOT 520 pages). That is easily explained. I have two friends a six-year-old (Cohen) and a ten-year-old (Wes) with autism. They often sit with me when they struggle with the pews at Church and end up being more than their parents can handle. I must confess, I can do amazing things on Sunday with Wes or Cohen (mints or candy help), but Wes + Cohen + Augustine never seems to work out well for Augustine. Thus, my progress has been slowed. I think both God and Augustine would/will understand.

I must also confess that I liked the Confessions part of the book, more than the expositions (the last 4 books).

* my Mormon framework, Zen Mormon, would also be considered a heresy by most Mormons. :)